July 16, 2013

The City Council approved a 10-year tax abatement on a 374-unit apartment and
townhome development planned for Fort Worth’s old Linwood neighborhood, a World
War II community in the West Seventh Street corridor.

The council unanimously approved the abatement for a limited partnership of
Greystar Real Estate Partners, one of the nation’s largest apartment owners and
developers.

Greystar plans to buy 24 vacant duplexes in a 5.1-acre area between Carroll
and Foch streets and Azalea Avenue and Merrimac Street and replace those with 22
three-story row houses facing Carroll Street and four three-story and four-story
apartment buildings with 352 units.

The brick-and-stucco buildings will feature stoops, front yards and
tree-lined streets with pull-in street parking, in addition to a 500-space
garage. The community will have a public park, pool and outdoor dining area for
residents.

Under the abatement agreement, Greystar would need to invest $35 million by
Dec. 31, 2015; create eight full time jobs; spend at least $10.5 million with
Fort Worth contractors and at least $8.75 million in construction costs with
Fort Worth women or minority owned businesses, and annually spend $233,500 with
Fort Worth firms on services and supplies.

City estimates show the project generating $2.7 million in property taxes, of
which $1.8 million will be returned to the developer to help defray
infrastructure costs.

The deal is expected to close in mid-August with construction beginning soon
after. The project would be completed in January 2015.

Rents will run at market rates, about $1.50 a square foot, but 10 percent of
the units will be affordable housing, or rented to tenants who earn below the
area’s median income.

The project is just across Carroll Street from the Montgomery Plaza
development.